ADLER, Russia – The International Olympic Committee’s top spokesman insisted on Sunday that mountain hotels will be ready when the Olympic Games open.

He just wouldn’t bet his life on it.

IOC and Sochi organizing officials came under fire Sunday as concerns continue mount about the readiness of the Sochi Games just five days before Friday's Opening Ceremony.

IOC communications director Mark Adams acknowledged that three major hotels in the Krasnaya Polyana mountain region near several Olympic venues remain unfinished. The hotels are supposed to house team and sports officials, corporate sponsors and media members, many who have already arrived in Russia to find their accommodations unavailable.

“I wouldn’t put my life on the line,” Adams said, “but my understanding is that the rooms are in the process of being finished.”

Sochi and Russian Olympic officials also maintained the hotels and Olympic venues will be completed by Friday.

But even as Mutko spoke, dozens of crews were busy paving roads and sidewalks on roads leading into the Olympic Park, the centerpiece to Games that are expected to cost a record $55 billion, $48 billion more than the price tag for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Within the park, other crews were working on competition venues. Still other work crews were busy trying to drape oversized banners with the Sochi logo around the miles and miles of mud and rubble that surround the Olympic Park, which was built on a landfill next to the Black Sea.

“Before the Olympic Park, this territory used to be a large swamp,” said Oleg Kharchenko, chief architect for Olympstroy, a company that has constructed many of the Olympic venues.

But because hundreds of acres of landscaping Sochi organizers promised in their bid for the Games almost certainly will not be finished, Adler could resemble a 21st Century version of Woodstock with just a day of rain.

In the mountains, Aleksandra Kosterina, Sochi 2014’s communications director, said the three unfinished hotels are “being tested, which will be completed in the near future.”

But at least one of the hotels still faces major construction issues, according to team officials and journalists who had been expected to stay at the hotels.

IOC and Sochi officials also sidestepped questions about reports that government squads have rounded up and killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of stray dogs in Adler. Packs of stray dogs can be seen running throughout Adler, even in hotels, and this has for months been an issue that has attracted international attention that has embarrassed Sochi officials and the Putin government. When asked on whether the IOC had received any information from Sochi officials on whether stray dogs had been destroyed, Adams said, “This hasn’t been addressed recently.”

Adams also denied statements by Australian officials that the IOC advised them and other national Olympic committees to keep their athletes within high security areas because of terrorism and violent crime concerns. Based on the IOC advice, the Australia Olympic Committee is prohibiting its athletes from leaving official areas during the Games, Australian officials said.

While the IOC has for the past decade emphasized presenting environmentally sound Games, Kharchenko acknowledged Sochi officials have struggled with environmental impact issues. For instance, Olympic venues will not have bins that separate waste that is recyclable from other trash.

“Nowadays the world is obsessed with building green buildings with recycling and environmental construction works,” Kharchenko said. “Russia is having a difficult time to catch up. It is difficult to implement this approach in many projects because it is very difficult to convince investors that they would be able to recoup the costs.”

Related Links

Crews continue work atop the cauldron in the Olympic Park Sunday afternoon before the start of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia Friday. MARK RIGHTMIRE, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Crews continue work atop the cauldron in the Olympic Park Sunday afternoon before the start of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia Friday. MARK RIGHTMIRE, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A worker climbs up a large structure to secure a banner in the Olympic Park Sunday afternoon before the start of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia on Friday. MARK RIGHTMIRE, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

1 of

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.